Ruben Quesada

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Ruben Quesada, AWP Conference 2017

Ruben Quesada, Ph.D., is a Costa Rican-American poet. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.[1] A native Angeleno, Ruben was raised by immigrant parents. He is the author of the poetry collections Revelations and Next Extinct Mammal.

After receiving a Ph.D. in English, Ruben moved to Illinois in 2012. Soon after, with the mentorship of founding members from Canto Mundo Poetry, Macondo Writers, and Letras Latinas, Ruben founded the Latinx Writers Caucus at the Association of Writing & Writing Programs (AWP).

In 2015, Ruben moved to Chicago and launched the Logan’s Run Readings series, the nation’s only Latinx literary salon. Poets and authors featured include Daniel Borzutzky, Juan Martinez, Joanne Diaz, Erika L. Sánchez, David Campos, Diana Pando, Carlo Matos, Amy Sayre Baptista, Wendy C. Ortiz, Mónica A. Jiménez, and Diego Báez.[2]

In January 2021, Ruben launched Mercy Street Readings, a live literary broadcast featuring contemporary poets and writers. He currently serves as an editorial advisor for JackLeg Press and he teaches as an Associate Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute and for the UCLA Writers’ Program.

Career[]

Quesada earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at UC Riverside. He then went on to earn a Doctorate in English (Poetry and Poetics) at Texas Tech University.

Quesada served as faculty at Northwestern University,[3] The School of the Art Institute,[4] Vermont College of Fine Arts, UCLA Writers' Program, Columbia College Chicago, where he taught Latinx literature, literary translation, editing, and poetry writing.[5] He is the founding member of the Latino Writers Caucus, which serves to promote the success of Latinx and Latin American writers at all stages of their career.[6]

His extensive editorial career includes positions at The Cossack Review and co-founder of Stories & Queer.[7] He is a former editor at The Rumpus and Iron Horse Literary Review,[8] a Contributing Editor at the Chicago Review of Books,[9] and as a Poetry Editor at AGNI. From serves as a blogger at The Kenyon Review.

In 2021, he began serving on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, where he also serves as the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Publications[]

Quesada is the author of Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011), which "revels in the grounded, specific names and places of his California childhood, and invites them to join Zeus and Aphrodite in the pantheon of poetic allusion", and translator of Luis Cernuda: Exiled from the Throne of Night (Aureole Press, 2008).[10] He is currently working on an anthology entitled Latino Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming).

Quesada's poetry appears in The Best American Poetry[11] and has earned a Pushcart Prize nomination; his writing appears in Harvard Review, Guernica, The American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares[12] and Cimarron Review, among others.

In November 2018, a chapbook of original poetry and literary translations of Spanish poet Luis Cernuda titled Revelations[13] was published by Sibling Rivalry Press.[14] The title of the collection is inspired by the medieval book Revelations of Divine Love.

External links[]

References[]

  1. ^ Ruben Quesada, Poetry Foundation, 2015, retrieved 3 December 2015
  2. ^ "DIY: A Tiny Interview With Ruben Quesada". blog.pshares.org. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  3. ^ "Ruben Quesada: Department of English - Northwestern University". Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  4. ^ "rquesa". School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  5. ^ "Ruben Quesada". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  6. ^ "LIT 50 2017". Newcity Lit. 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  7. ^ Ruben Quesada, Poetry Editor, Cobalt Review, 2015, retrieved 3 December 2015
  8. ^ "Ruben Quesada - PEN America". pen.org. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  9. ^ "Ruben Quesada | Writers' Program at UCLA Extension". writers.uclaextension.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  10. ^ Calderwood, Brent (4 January 2012), 'Next Extinct Mammal' by Ruben Quesada, Lambda Literary, retrieved 3 December 2015
  11. ^ Lehman, David; Gioia, Dana (2018-09-18). Best American Poetry 2018. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781501127809.
  12. ^ "Ruben Quesada". blog.pshares.org. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  13. ^ Quesada, Ruben (2018-05-29). "Ruben Quesada". Ruben Quesada. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  14. ^ ""A Bridge to Some Other Possibility": Interview with Bryan Borland & Seth Pennington". Indiana Review. 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
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